NPP demand details of Goverment dealings with Kosmos
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) is asking Government to make full disclosure of its engagements with Kosmos Energy, one of the partners in the Jubilee Oil Field in relation to the payment of fines imposed on the company in 2010 for oil spillage.
The party says Government’s announcement that it has reached an amicable settlement with Kosmos Energy to pay 15 million dollars as fine for the oil spillage is not convincing enough.
A publication in Monday July 4 edition of the Economy Times, said Kosmos Energy has paid 15million dollars breach fine to the Ghana National Petroleum Corporation to cater for last year’s oil spillage and issues pertaining to data disclosure without Government consent.
But the NPP says this contradicts Kosmos Energy’s statement to the US Securities and Exchange Commission stating that the payment is just to settle issues pertaining to date disclosure without Government consent.
The National Youth Organiser of the NPP, Anthony Karbo told Citi News that Government’s initial fine of 25 million dollars must be properly explained since Kosmos Energy has refused to pay the fine.
“If you look at the letter that Kosmos sent to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, you will realise that if you are listing a company, you are supposed to make full disclosures of the payment that you have made and Kosmos’s own letter contradicts the Government’s statement that has been issued to the effect that, the 15 million represents payments made for data disclosure disputes and the spillage. And that is not true, because we are being told that for the spillage, 25 million dollars was the fine and Kosmos has declined to pay arguing that the Government has no legal basis to impose that fine in the first place”.
“So what has happened to that situation and what is the amicable resolution? We are asking Government to come clean on these matters. There are a lot of issues in the oil field that we need to speak about and call for greater transparency in dealing with them because we are talking about benefits that are supposed to accrue to the tax payer and the Ghanaian people. Therefore if indeed Kosmos is failing to pay the fine, what are the amicable solutions that Government has reached which is not being made public” he quizzed.
Source Citifmonline Ghana
Category: Politics
